444 
POPULAE SCIENCE EEVIEW. 
Opaque masses of ice^ which have generally a fibrous structure. They are 
never completely transparent save when they have been moistened by a 
shower of rain. When large, they seem to be formed of concentric layers, 
which enclose a central snowy-looking opaque nucleus. He asks the 
question whether the huge hailstones sometimes seen are formed in the usual 
manner, or are due to the regelation of a number of hailstones. His own 
experiments have shown him that even hailstones as large as a hen’s egg 
liave only one nucleus like the ordinary hailstone. Hence he concludes that 
these large stones are formed in a manner similar to the smaller ones. M. 
Lecompte admits the difficult}^ of drawing definitive conclusions as to the 
causes productive of hail, but he thinks we may admit that the immediate 
cause is frequently the conflict of two opposite winds, one of them bearing 
masses of warm vapour, the other being, on the contrary, cold and dry, thus 
precipitating the vapour into drops subsequently frozen. M. Lecompte's 
interesting memoir is published by M. Hayez of Brussels. 
Change of Climate in India . — In an article which lately appeared in the 
Madras Times the writer urged upon amateurs and the Government to make 
an effort to establish a systematic scheme of meteorological observations. The 
reason for this, they say, is that even common experience shows how the 
climate of India has changed during the last twenty years. It would be 
very interesting, says the writer, to consider the atmospheric changes of the 
last ten years in the chief districts of the Madras Presidency. That their 
climates have changed to an extraordinary degree he has no doubt what- 
ever, taking the present year of 1868 and the recollections of residents into 
consideration. Secundrabad, Bangalore, and Vizagapatani are remarkable 
instances of the changes in question. At the first-named station, the “ cold 
weather ’’ in former years was proverbial. ‘^The delicious cold weather of 
Secundrabad ” is still spoken of by individuals who would find it by no 
means chilly at the present da }" ) and at Bangalore the fire-places of the old 
houses prove how much colder was its climate in former years than at pre- 
sent, Old sepoys have informed him also that in Bangalore, some twenty 
years ago their fingers were so benumbed with cold on early morning parades, 
that they found some difficulty in holding their muskets, whereas they now 
cannot complain of the cold being in any degree unpleasant. Vizagapatani, 
again, some years ago, was usually regarded by officers as a favourite 
military station on account of its pleasant, bracing weather ; but now, 
the writer is assured, it is as hot as Cuddapah, a station, by the way, which, 
in the see-saw of atmospheric phenomena, is apparently becoming cooler as 
its rivals become hotter. Also, in many stations, there is a great difference 
observable in the annual rainfall. In some it has greatly increased : in 
others it has greatly lessened on the average of former years. And the 
same may be said of the heat, which is equally capricious with the rain and 
the cold. 1868 will, he trusts, long be remarkable as an unusually hot year 
in some stations, and as an unusually wet one at others — Madras, for example. 
For very many years such heat has not been experienced in Bangalore 
and Hyderabad as during the past hot seasons. The natives have a saying 
that “ plenty of rain and plenty of cold follow plenty of heat ; ” and 
this has been the writer’s experience. The unusual rainfall in Orissa 
and Cuttack this season is as extraordinary as the unusual heat in the 
